GRAND RAPIDS, MI — Twenty-six feet of bronze, branches and birds now stand tall at Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park.
The sculpture, Amalgam (Origin), by Nick Cave, an internationally renowned artist, was unveiled Thursday, Oct.2 at a media event. The artwork will officially open to the public on Friday, Oct. 3.
Cave, who resides in Chicago, is an alum of metro Detroit’s Cranbrook Academy of Art.
The sculpture is the latest rendition in a long line of Cave’s Soundsuits. Until now, the suits were wearable pieces meant to mask the wearer’s identity, stripping the pre-conceived notions of race, class and gender.
Cave said the idea for the sculpture was a response to the beating of Rodney King, a black motorist, by white Los Angeles Police Officers in 1991 that was videotaped. The incident led to the 1992 Los Angeles riots, following the officers being found not guilty of assaulting King on April 29, 1992.
“It has always been about ways of adorning the body and how do we create that as a shield of protection,” Cave said about the sculpture, “and in this case, with it being connected to the garden, there is this sort of groundness.”
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Now, the androgynous and powerful figure is softened by the florals that decorate it. “It invites you to sit in its stillness,” Cave said.
The layers of interaction between people, art and nature is evident through every aspect of the piece, down to its placement in the park.
Surrounded by trees with real birds flying overhead, Cave looks forward to the ways in which the statue is changed by its environment.
“I put it out here in nature and I have to accept what comes along with that,” he said.
The artwork is Cave’s first outdoor sculpture, a jump he said he’s been wanting to make to remove his work from the confines of a gallery setting and make it more accessible to the public.
Officials with Meijer Gardens, located at 1000 East Beltline Ave. NE, said the piece expands and diversifies their permanent collection of over 300 international sculptures.
Suzanne Ramljak, vice president of collections and curatorial affairs for Meijer Gardens, said she has been eyeing Cave’s work his entire career. His leap into bronze-work cemented the possibility of adding a piece of his to their permanent collection.
Metrics-wise, the statue is the second largest in the park, bested by the 41-foot “Neuron” by contemporary sculptor Roxie Paine. But to Ramljak, its impression on the viewer makes it feel like the tallest.
“There’s just something about a body speaking to a body that adds breadth and power,” she said.
“It really couldn’t be a stronger statement of what we believe in,” Ramljak said, “and not to mention all the elements of the human spirit.”
Cave used digital scans of his own body and various adornments to build the sculpture with virtual reality. That design was forged in bronze and then crowned with tree growth built from real wood that surrounded his foundry space on the East Coast.
The technology of the VR headset allowed Cave to explore through, in and around the intricacies of the piece’s design.
“At no given moment did I ever want the sensibility of the hand to be removed,” Cave said.
For him, the technology was simply a tool, “you get real precise answers because you really can imagine its relationship to the human body,” he said.
For more information about the piece, the artist, and tickets to the park, go to the garden’s website at meijergardens.org/nickcave/
For a closer look at the piece, check out the full gallery above or click here.